


Beautiful

by Bombay



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Incest, Movie Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-08 00:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bombay/pseuds/Bombay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna wants Elsa to call her beautiful one last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pandypaws (malafight)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malafight/gifts).



Anna wasn't naturally inclined towards the more "feminine" attire she was expected to wear. When she was little, it just wasn't practical - clothes that constrained her or that she was expected to keep clean just didn't mesh well with a girl prone to running and climbing and getting into all sorts of games.

Elsa, on the other hand, loved pretty things, and could often coax her little sister into a game of dress-up. The first time, Anna was reluctant, until Elsa's face lit up and she said, "Oh, Anna, you're beautiful!" Since then, Anna happily dressed up, reveling in her big sister's praise. But then...

Anna still dressed up, with both a longing for the past and a hope for the future. The pretty, girlish things she wore comforted her and she hoped that maybe, if Elsa ever came out again, she'd call Anna pretty, lovely, and beautiful once again.

As the years passed and Anna's hope of seeing her sister again dwindled, she still wore the clothes and pretty things, not out of any desire to be beautiful, but because they comforted her and reminded her of a warmer time in her childhood.

When coronation day came, Anna dressed in her finest regalia, thinking nothing of it. Of course she would dress up for a party as big as this - and her first party, too! The prospect excited her, and she tore through the castle, full of restless energy.

Even more exciting was seeing her sister again. Elsa was thin and pale, but poised and radiating an air of authority. _Oh, sister, you're gorgeous..._ Anna mentally sighed. Elsa was born to be a queen. So graceful and elegant - not scruffy and hyper. _I'd rather be just a princess!_ Anna thought, amused. _But what queen would want a scruffy, hyper princess like me around?_ The realization saddened her.

"You look beautiful," Elsa whispered.

All the warm feelings from her childhood rushed back. She mentally tripped and fumbled over her words, beyond flattered that her gorgeous, queenly sister would even bother to compliment her.

"You look beautifuller." _Dammit, mouth! Say real words!_ "I-I mean, not _fuller_ , but more-- more beautiful." _Good save!_

Elsa smiled in a way that made Anna giddy. "Thank you."

That night quickly went downhill, but Anna kept that smile in her heart. Could a monster smile like that? Anna didn't believe so. Her sister was a good person.

Anna set out that night to find Elsa, to make amends and bring her home, where she belonged. Where they both belonged, together, as sisters.

She might have called the journey long and treacherous, but it only took about a day, and the only problem they ran into were the wolves. But in her retellings, there would be a lot more. It would take a week, at least, and there would be bandits and ice monsters and tree people and also wolves. Because every good adventure story has wolves. She'd tell it to their children and to their children's children, and to anybody that would listen, because she was going to get Elsa back and everything would be okay again.

The ice palace was breathtakingly beautiful. Possibly because of the high altitude. But it was still gorgeous - clear and shining and...very symmetrical. And maybe a bit small, comparatively speaking, but if it was just for Elsa, then that made sense. Besides, she could probably make more rooms with that ice power of hers.

God... That power. Sure, at the castle, it was rather scary, but Elsa was frightened. Anybody would throw up walls when they were backed into a corner like that. Elsa's just...happened to be physical. And made of spikes. Really...sharp, pointy spikes.

Anna gulped, and steeled herself in front of the opaque ice door.

"Do you think she knows how to knock?"

_Do I?_ she wondered. _Do I know what it means to knock and be let in?_ There was only one way to tell. She knocked.

The door opened.

She stepped inside, marveling at the crystal interior. For a castle built of nothing but frozen water, it looked so much more elegant and regal than anything wood and stone and fur and fabric could do. Perhaps...perhaps this _was_ where Elsa belonged, in this beautiful, iridescent palace... In this cold, lonely place... _No!_

Elsa stepped into view at the top of the landing. "Anna..."

Anna pleaded with her - come back home! Maybe the ice palace was where Elsa belonged, and maybe it was where Elsa wanted to be, but it made Anna too sad. The thought that her sister never wanted to see her again, never wanted to play with her, be with her, tell her she was beautiful... It made her want to cry. And maybe it was selfish and wrong of her to want these things, but she didn't care.

Even when Elsa struck her, she still didn't care - she still wanted her sister back. But...it would have to be on Elsa's terms. She understood that much. She did her best, but that wasn't enough...

She felt cold, like everything warm and good in the world was far from her reach. But she couldn't lose here - they still had work to do. She had to get back to the kingdom and rule in Elsa's place, and she wasn't going to be able to do that quickly if she was just a dead weight for Kristoff.

Her hair... Her hair was white. The cold, she realized, wasn't just metaphorical. She felt really, really cold and, as the adrenaline rush died down, extremely frail.

Kristoff did his best. Anna made a note to get him a new sleigh - a really nice one with bells and whistles and bows - if she managed to survive this. True love, they said... What even was true love? Elsa had denied it, and even Kristoff was skeptical that what Anna felt for Hans was true love. But that rush of excitement, that flutter in her stomach - if that wasn't true love, what was? Surely...surely Hans did truly love her! Who proposes so quickly if it's not true love? That was enough, wasn't it?

"Oh, Anna... If only there were somebody out there who truly loved you."

_There was, once... I think..._ And the fractured, faded memories wavered into her consciousness, of a time when Elsa smiled and made snowmen and called Anna "cute" and "beautiful" and "lovely" and "gorgeous." Tears rolled, but not for Hans. She'd be angry about Hans if she weren't too busy being sad over the loss of the love of her sister. She cried for Elsa.

"Love is...putting someone else's needs before yours."

Like racing down a mountain on the back of a reindeer to save a girl you'd just met.

_Or isolating yourself in a frozen castle on the mountain so you wouldn't hurt people..._

Or throwing yourself in front of a sword meant for your sister, even if she did try to make you believe she didn't care, because you still love her and you still want her to call you beautiful, even just one last time.

Even as the ice froze over her body, Anna felt warm. Even if Elsa didn't care, even if she didn't love her, even if she never called Anna beautiful ever again, Arendelle needed its queen. Its graceful and brilliant queen. Not some hapless princess who accepts marriage proposals from men just hours after she meets them.

The ice thawed.

Anna still felt weak, but she managed to stay on her feet long enough to be squeezed tight by Elsa. It was the warmest hug Anna had ever been given.

"An act of true love...!"

_This is love, then?_ Anna almost laughed. Love was supposed to be magical and exciting, wasn't it? Not painful and heartbreaking. But then...it probably wouldn't hurt so much if it wasn't love, would it? Love was racing up a mountain without the right clothes. Love was believing in somebody even when everyone called them a monster, even when they struck you by accident. Love was knowing that deep down, there was still that little girl who loved building snowmen and riding bikes and playing dress-up and eating chocolate and laughing at silly old men.

Love was all these things, but at that moment, all Anna knew was that Elsa loved her, because love was holding on to each other and never letting go.

And this love - this love could thaw a kingdom.

\--

The next few days were a drastic change from anything Anna had ever known. At least Kristoff had been understanding about the whole "kissing" incident. "Just friends" seemed to work much better for the both of them. Anna did love Kristoff, but...as a friend. These days spent with her sister's company made her realize that the love she felt for Elsa was so much more than siblings could possibly encompass.

And every so often, Elsa would call Anna beautiful with that slight but wicked smile, and Anna would blush and try not to think about those _other_ times - the times where she's flushed and panting, the times her hair's mussed in a very telling way, the times she's-- No, she won't think about that. It's just unseemly, thinking such thoughts in public.

And Anna would smile back, full of innocence, and say, "Thank you," in her way that meant, "I love you, too."


End file.
